Global Education Innovation: Longworth Forest

Longworth Forest selected as part of Finnish “HundrED’s 100 Global Education Innovations Project”

Longworth Forest, a private education initiative for 5 – 7 year old children in Napier, New Zealand, has been announced by global education non-profit HundrED, as one of its 100 innovative education projects across the world, all of which have been gathered over the past two years.

HundrED aims to share inspiring ideas and projects across borders to help improve the future of education globally. To achieve this, a team of researchers investigated innovations from around the world to determine 100 projects that are changing the face of education. The innovations were identified through research, events and recommendations; over 700 projects were evaluated based on their originality, impact and scalability.

Longworth Forest was chosen due to its unique pioneering status and ability to create a scalable impact. Longworth Forest was established in Poraiti, Napier, in 2014 by Linda and Bruce Cheer, and seeks to provide children 5 – 7 years of age with safe and semi structured opportunities to experience risk and challenge, to problem solve and enterprise, all at the child’s own pace. It is a child led approach which gives children the power to initiate and drive their own learning, to make meaningful choices and to discover and develop their interests. Through regular outdoor play, children learn to develop positive relationships with themselves and others as well as a bond with nature and an understanding of their place in the natural world. Parents choosing to have their children attend Longworth Forest cited a desire to delay formal education for their children, all the while building and maintaining confident learning dispositions as well as literacy and numeracy skills required as they moved into more formal education settings.

Linda Cheer at Longworth Education said: “We’re so pleased to have been selected as one of HundrED’s 100 global innovations. The project was created to ensure teachers are able to engage learners, and improve outcomes. Being offered the opportunity to extend this beyond New Zealand using the HundrED platform is amazing and we are excited to see just how much further the project can be scaled.”

The selected 100 projects cover various fields of education from learning environments and holistic well-being to collaborative learning and game-based education, as well as a range of themes including small teacher-led practices, ambitious not-for-profit initiatives, viral Edtech products and unique whole school models.

Saku Tuominen, creative director of HundrED, said: “Longworth Forest clearly stood out to us as a project that needed to be shared with the world. Being able to showcase these innovations marks the beginning of a drive to get all teachers involved in revolutionising education. We will continue to encourage as many schools and organisations as possible to get involved so that we can work towards a positive future”.

To share the projects, HundrED has created an online platform so that educators around the world can trial and review Longworth Education and all the other innovations using the resources, for free. To explore the global innovations, please visit: www.hundred.org

More information about the project can be found by visiting: Longworth Forest, Longworth Education and www.hundred.org.